NBC Olympic ratings exceeding expectations

PYEONGCHANG, SOUTH KOREA – FEBRUARY 13: Gold medalist Chloe Kim #1 of the United States celebrates her gold medal win during the Snowboard – Ladies’ Halfpipe competition. (Getty Images)

We’re not even half way through the 2018 Winter Olympics and already NBC is exceeding it’s golden expectations for Olympic viewer ratings according to NBC Sports Chairman, Mark Lazarus.

“The Olympics continue to defy media gravity,” Lazarus said in an Associated Press article this week.

As of Tuesday, the ratings have eclipsed guarantees that NBC had provided it’s advertisers which has subsequently allowed for even more commercial time sales.

Even before the PyeongChang Games started, NBC had sold $900 million worth of advertising. For the first time, the Nielsen rating numbers include prime-time programming on the NBCSN cable network and digital streaming, adding close to 2 million extra viewers to the already 22 million viewers who watch the broadcast network.

While viewership is slightly down from the Sochi games four years ago, it’s not down as much as the rest of normal TV shows, which have steadily dropped over the last four years. According to the Nielsen company, so far the 2018 Games viewership is down 6 percent from the Sochi games, but in comparison, the overall top ten rated TV shows are down 22 percent in viewership from 2013-14.

It’s all coming up roses and viewership ratings-gold medals for the NBC Network during these 2018 Winter Olympic Games. Even NBC’s prime-time rookie host Mike Tirico has received public endorsement from his NBC boss.

Tirico is “just as good if not better than we thought he’d be,” NBC Sports Chairman Mark Lazarus said Tuesday during a conference call.